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Souffle au Rhum
Yolks 2 eggs 1/4 cup powered sugar 1 tablespoon rum Whites 4 eggs Few grains salt Beat yolks of eggs until lemon-colored. Add sugar, salt, and rum. Cut and fold in whites of eggs beaten until stiff and dry. Butter a hot omelet pan, pour in one-half mixture, brown underneath, fold gradually, turn on a hot serving dish, and sprinkle with powdered sugar. Cook remaining mixture in same way. Souffle au Rhum should be slightly underdone inside. At gentlemen's dinners rum is sometimes poured around souffle and lighted when sent to table.
This is an omelette soufflé rather than a baked soufflé: no flour, no milk, no ramekin. It is cooked in a pan on the stove and served the moment it leaves it.
- The hingeEverything depends on folding, not stirring. Beat the whites to stiff peaks, then cut down through the yolk mixture with the edge of a spatula and turn it over, keeping the air in. A deflated mixture will fry flat instead of puffing.
- Two yolks, four whitesThe imbalance is deliberate and not a slip. The extra whites give lift and lightness; the yolks are there for colour and richness only.
- Powdered sugarIn this period "powdered sugar" usually meant loaf or lump sugar pounded and sifted, finer than granulated but not necessarily as fine as the confectioners' sugar sold today; texture varied. Either modern powdered sugar (which contains a little cornstarch, harmless here) or fine granulated will serve.
- Omelet panA well-seasoned or nonstick pan of 8 to 9 inches, with sloping sides so the soufflé can be folded and slid out. "Hot" means medium heat, not high "" the sugar in the mixture browns quickly and will scorch before the centre sets.
- TimingEach half cooks in roughly two to three minutes, covered loosely if you want the top a little firmer. The instruction that it be "slightly underdone inside" is the point of the dish: the centre should stay creamy, like a warm sabayon.
- Cook in two batches, as directedThe recipe divides the mixture for a reason. A single pan-load is too deep to brown underneath before the inside sets, and beaten whites will not wait, so have the serving dishes hot and the sugar ready before you start.
- YieldThe recipe gives no number; the two pan-loads suggest two servings, one from each half. It cannot be held or reheated.
- Rum and eggsOne tablespoon of rum is enough to perfume the mixture without weighing down the whites. If the flaming finish is attempted, warm the rum in a small pan away from the stove, pour it round the dish and light it at arm's length "" never pour from the bottle toward a flame. Because the centre is intentionally soft, anyone pregnant, elderly or immune-compromised should use pasteurized eggs or choose another sweet.